verse of the twenty-second chapter,-intimates in the twentieth verse, when correctly rendered, that it is a third undertaking, division, or series of the subject, and that the arrangement was made by Solomon himself, and closes with the close of chapter the twentyfourth. It yields in no respect to either of the preceding the matter is as important, the diction as spirited and elegant, and the personifications as bold and striking. The introduction is peculiarly beautiful and impressive:

Incline thine ear, and hearken to the words of the wise,

And apply thine heart to my instruction.

O! how sweet, if thou keep them in thy bosom.
Harmoniously shall they be fitted to thy lips.
For the fixing thy trust in Jehovah

To-day am I making thee thoroughly know thyself;
Yea, a third time am I not imprinting upon thee
Concerning counsels and knowledge?

"The vice of intoxication, and the train of evils that accompany it, are, in this book, painted with a force and accuracy of colouring, that we shall in vain seek for any where else. It extends from the twenty-ninth verse of the twenty-third chapter, to its close; and the following imagery is in the highest style of Oriental excellence, for the full meaning of which the reader may turn to the notes on the passage:

Look not on wine when it assumeth the ruby;
When it throweth its eye from the cup.

Though it move round with blandishments,
In its end it will bite as a serpent,

Yea, sting as a cockatrice :

Thine eyes shall image profligate women,

And thine heart utter incoherencies.

"PART IV. is avowedly, as already observed, a posthumous appendix; consisting of various parabolic compositions, written and communicated by Solomon on different occasions, but never published by himself in an arranged form; yet altogether worthy of the place they hold in the Sacred Scriptures. It comprises the last seven chapters, and consequently commences with the twenty-fifth chapter. The editors of this part of the work are expressly declared to be the royal scribes or librarians in the reign of Hezekiah, who seem to have acted under the royal command, and were probably Ithiel and Ucal, mentioned in the second verse of chapter the thirtieth, as applying to Agur for documents in his possession, or recollections in his memory. The admonitory verses composed for king Lemuel by his mother, when he was in the flower of youth and high expectation, and with which the work concludes, are an inimitable production, as well in respect to their actual materials, as the delicacy with which they are selected. Instead of attempting to lay down rules concerning matters of state and political government, the illustrious writer confines herself, with the nicest and most becoming art, to a recommendation of the gentler virtues of temperance, benevolence, and mercy; and a minute and unparalleled delineation of the female character, which might bid fairest to promote the happiness of her son in connubial life. The description, though strictly in consonance with the domestic economy of the highest sphere of life, in the early period referred to, and especially in the East, is of universal application, and cannot be studied too closely; and the value which Solomon appears to have set upon this beautiful

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address is the most striking practical illustration he could give of the important lesson he so frequently inculcates,

Forsake not the precept of thy mother.

"From these remarks it must be evident, that a good translation of the book of Proverbs cannot be accomplished without great difficulties, though difficulties of a peculiar kind. In the book of Job, and in the prophecies of Isaiah and Hosea, the text is often in the greatest degree obscure, in consequence of the rapid transition of the writer from one subject or metaphor to another, and the frequent abruptness of his style. In the book before us, the prevailing difficulties are those of following up the particular construction of a verse, seizing the proper sense of what may be regarded as its governing term, and which constitutes the pivot on which the whole turns; and in finding an equivalent term in the vernacular tongue, capable of expressing a double sense, and of being equally iterated, in all cases in which such iteration is playfully introduced, and a double sense is made to appear in the original. Without this, the general moral may, indeed, be caught and communicated, but the fine aroma, the essential and operative spirit, will completely fly off in the distillation; and what remains will be nothing more than a caput mortuum or dead letter."

TRANSLATION OF THE PSALMS.

For the last four or five years of Dr. Good's life, much of his time was devoted to a new translation of "The Book of Psalms, from the Original Hebrew, with

an Outline of their History, and explanatory Notes." During this period, the Psalter was evidently his chief delight. To some of his friends he wrote about it; to others he expatiated upon it orally, read his translations of particular psalms, and developed their peculiarities; to his family he expounded it, usually with great fervour and pathos. If, when speaking of this comprehensive summary, Luther's" Parva Biblia," he did not characterize it in the precise language of Augustine,* and Ambrose,† or in the quaint expressiveness of old Gerhard, he evidently blended, in his estimate of its value, all that they have said, if not all that they could think. In one of his latest letters to his constant and valued friend, Dr. Drake, bearing date May 20, 1826; after speaking of his "Book of Nature," which he then presented to the Doctor, he proceeds, as with a decided persuasion that he was about to mention his last work :

"I have thus been enabled to finish one of the designs on which I have long set my affections; and it will afford me pleasure to learn that I have hereby

Tutela pueris, Juvenibus ornamentum, solatium senibus, mulieribus aptissimus decor. August. Prolog. in lib. Psal.

+ Licet omnis Scriptura Divina Dei gratiam spiret; præcipuè tamen dulcis Psalmorum liber.... Historia instruit; Lex docet; Prophetia annunciat; Correptio castigat; Moralitas suadet: In Libro Psalmorum profectus est omnium. Amb. in Psal. Dav. præfat.

The Psalms are a jewel-cluster made up of the gold of doctrine, the pearls of comfort, the gems of prayer. This book is a theatre of God's works, a sweet field and rosary of promises, a paradise of delicious fruits and heavenly delights: an ample sea, wherein tempest-tossed souls find pearls of consolation: an heavenly school, wherein God himself is chief instructor: the flower and quintessence of Scriptures: a glass of divine grace, representing the fatherly countenance of God in Christ and a most accurate anatomy of the Christian soul, delineating all its affections, motions, temptations, and depths of perplexity; with their proper remedy. -Gerhard. Com Pla. § 144.

given a little mental recreation to a friend, in whose fortunes of joy or sorrow I shall ever take a deep and almost personal interest.

"But the time is short!-and a less firm possession of health than formerly is mercifully designed to imprint this most important lesson on my heart. May the gracious Power that is reading it to me, enable me to improve it! I must, therefore, work while it is called to-day."

"I have just completed an entire new version of the Psalter, after the manner of the book of Job: and I have had very great pleasure in going through so rich a treasure of spiritual worth and unrivalled poetry. It has been a great and prime object with me to ascertain the time, place, and circumstances which appertain to each psalm, so as to assign to every one its exact historical position: and a very attentive and critical examination into the subject-matter of the whole, or the bearing of particular words or phrasesthe drift of scenery, or historic facts alluded to, has enabled me, as I trust, satisfactorily to accomplish this yet novel undertaking; and thus to furnish to every separate psalm, if I mistake not, a vastly greater interest than it can otherwise possess. Not that I mean thereby to disturb the esoteric or mystical reference which they so frequently and unquestionably have to the MESSIAH, or to undervalue the inappreciable labours of the excellent Bishop Horne; but rather to give them more force by a fuller display of their primary and historic sources.

"I, therefore, in a preliminary dissertation, give a chronological and general history of the Psalms, in their respective order of time; illustrating each from